As the use of mobile devices, such as smart phones and tablet devices, becomes more ubiquitous, the demands on a limited amount of licensed radio frequency spectrum used by the mobile devices also increases. The increased demand on the licensed spectrum results in cellular network congestion and interference. In addition, an increased use of high bandwidth applications such as audio and video streaming can increase demands beyond the capability of the available licensed spectrum. This is especially true in high density and high use locations such as large cities and universities.
Improvements in wireless network architectures, hardware design, and processor speed have significantly increased the efficiency of wireless devices in their use of the available licensed spectrum. However, the ability to transmit a greater number of bits per second per hertz of available bandwidth may be reaching an upper limit.
As wireless communication technology advances, a growing number of mobile devices support simultaneously communication with multiple network terminals. For example, multiple communication systems are available in many areas, each of which can utilize one or more different interface technologies (such as wireless wide area networks (WWAN) and wireless local area networks (WLAN)). However, integration of the different interface technologies, such as multi-mode communications interfaces and multi-mode mobile devices, needs to be increased to meet the increasing demand from the mobile devices.
Reference will now be made to the exemplary embodiments illustrated, and specific language will be used herein to describe the same. It will nevertheless be understood that no limitation of the scope of the invention is thereby intended.